Part-1

A Report to the Cabal:

Well, the SubRegatta is out of the way, I'm back at work in the shop finishing a

couple of turnkey jobs and catching up on some projects of my own.

Top of that list is the promised buildup of Steve's 1/72 BLUEBACK kit. I've elected
to build the prototype, the BARBLE, the lead boat of the class. I'm still torn
whether to build it with bow planes (as launched) or with fairwater planes (as
converted during a later yard period). We'll see.

The basic BLUEBACK kit is now available directly from the manufacturer, Steve

Neill. He can be reached at, sneill@socal.rr.com The price of this vacuformed
kit (six hull pieces) and resin (sail, stabilizers and control surfaces as well as
internal strengthening frames) is $275. The kit is very basic and demands above
average kit assembly skills. Shipping in the US is $18. For shipping charges outside
the US, contact Steve.

I recommend the D&E WTC-3 to make this boat operational. $414 plus $20
shipping. www.vabiz.com/d&e The WTC-3 comes equipped with a Graupner 400
motor made up to a 3:1 gear reduction unit; installed and tested gas type ballast

system, all mounting hardware and a very comprehensive set of instructions. To outfit the WTC you'll need an angle keeper and failsafe (SubSafe is a very good source); speed controller (Traxxas XL-1 recommended); a propel charging adapter (D&E Miniatures), and an r/c system (Polk's Tracker-3 recommended).

At a later date I hope to offer an 'enhanced' fittings kit to supplement what Steve offers. More on that later.

Anyway ... the main purpose of this project is to give direction to those who have purchased one of these kits; to show you how to best assemble one of these things and get it operational.

So, lets get to it:

Ellie showing off the basic Steve Neill vacuform and resin 1/72 BLUEBACK kit. The drawings don't come with the kit -- the customer is tasked with coming up with his own documentation. The vacuformed pieces are of about .070" nominal thickness, plenty stout enough for the task. And the resin pieces are pretty much bubble free. I'm glad to report that the kits sail is of thin wall thickness therefore is of minimal weight.

The kit is well packaged and arrived without damage.

Here are some of the documents I've collected over the years on the BARBLE class boats, of which the BLUEBACK is one. These diesel boats are of 'Albacore' Shape, yet are diesel-electric powered. Often confused in the press and by the casual observer, these are conventionally powered, not nuclear powered attack submarines. With the exception of a flat deck, the boats of this class are very close in appearance to the later STURGEON class nuclear powered attack submarines.

I marked the demarcation lines (an indentation on the surface of each hull piece is prominent enough to guide a pen) with a Sharpie pen. Then, using a rotary saw in the chuck of a Moto-Tool, I cut away the waste plastic sheet. Work went very quickly -- I had all six pieces of the hull cut out and sanded smooth within one hour. It took longer to set up the jigs and tool guides than it did to do the actual work!

I extended the width of my sanding machine bed by bolting a piece of angle-iron to one side. This permitted me to better control the amount of plastic abraded off the rough-cut plastic hull pieces. Just a piece of steel angle-iron bolted to the side of the sanding machine.

With care most of the truing up of the hull pieces can be done on the machine. However, the heat generated by the sanding has to be dissipated, that means sanding a bit, then waiting for the work to cool to the point where you can sand again without melting the plastic -- an acquired skill!

Final sanding of the six hull pieces was done by sliding each piece over a board that had two sheets of #100 sandpaper affixed to its face.

Owing to the limited size of his vacuforming machine, Steve Neill was compelled to break the hull into six parts: three for the upper hull and three for the lower hull. Fortunately Steve gave us a flange type union between the three pieces of each half. Here you see the after piece prepared and ready to mate with the middle piece. In foreground is the 'soft' flange of the forward piece.

The rounded and 'soft' curves of the hull are artifact of the method of fabrication: These parts are formed over plugs, not into cavity molds. As a consequence the plastic forms fillets where there should be hard-edges. In the case of the hull union flanges, these have to be restored, with a Moto-Tool or file, to a sharp ninety-degree step between surface of the hull and surface of the flange lip. The tool of choice here was a cylinder burr spun in a Moto-Tool.

The three pieces that will make up the upper hull half. You see here the prepared alignment/assembly jig that will be used to strap the three pieces flat on a true board as liquid cement is used to weld the pieces permanently together.

With the three sections of the upper hull half secured to the alignment/assembly fixture I gopped on vast amounts of a solvent type cement into the two gaps between the three pieces -- the cohesive flowing by capillary action and wetting both the flange and mating surfaces of the three pieces, effecting a proper weld.

Later the hull half was removed from the fixture, flipped over, more cohesive poured onto the flange area, and the hull then quickly returned to the fixture where it was once again strapped down with rubber bands. And there it stays for at least twelve hours to let the welds harden.

Tomorrow I begin building up the lower hull half atop the upper hull half.

Stay tuned, boys and girls for our next action-packed adventure!